Legendary Gary

Review

This is the story of a guy who many people can probably relate to. At the age of 30, he still lives at home with his old mother. He was content to lose his job at the supermarket without telling the true story to anyone, and has no intention of doing anything but play videogames all day long for fun instead. That’s until his mother was told by a pastor that a) the world would end very soon, and b) that by giving all her savings away to the pastor, the lord would be kind to her and her family on doomsday. And none of the bills have been paid, including the electricity! How is he going to play his favourite videogame? All will be revealed by the man himself . . .  Legendary Gary!

Legendary Gary is an RPG with fun turn-based combat mechanisms. And yes, you’ll be playing the life of Gary!

This is a very interesting game, to say the least. Gary is a normal guy, to a degree. Due to the fact that his mother has given away all her savings to a religious person (oh, God!), he feels the urge to go back to work and take on the responsibilities of paying the bills, becoming a better person, and mostly to keep playing his games at night. There will be plenty of interactions with other characters, who are very well-structured (my favourite is Dave, who is a bit of an idiot, but fun!) Gary will have to deal with his nephew, his girlfriend, a terrible boss and other colleagues at the supermarket. No wonder he needs to immerse himself in his video games at night!

Each night after work he’ll be playing “Legend of the Spear” where he takes control of a guy named Winkali. In this fantasy world, Winkali is supposed to marry the King’s daughter, but all hell breaks loose when Oniga, an old acquaintance of the king, makes his entry at a reception in the great tree (a massive tree palace of some sort). At this point the King escapes and leaves everyone behind, including the princess. This is where Winkali experiences his first taste of combat, and as you progress throughout your evening gaming sessions, he will be joined by other characters to help him defeat strange monsters in hand-to-hand combat. The combat phase is laid out as a hexagon grid and all the characters you control will have two gauges under their avatars; one with 5 health points and the other with 5 strategy points. Each action will cost the character a minimum of 1 to 2 strategy points per turn. To regain all strategy points, each character needs to rest for one. What I personally like in these combat phases is that it’s easy to play and that you can preview what the opponent will do in the turn. After winning, your party will be given a flower seed which will grow in Gary’s garden, located in front of his house. So make sure that Gary waters these plants every morning before going to work so that Winkali and his party have additional abilities in the battles.

In terms of puzzles, they are cleverly done. It is important to be attentive to what is happening during the day in order to solve the puzzles while playing the adventure at night. It’s a bit of a parallel world between the two. Cleverly done and fun. Another aspect of this game that is fun is the dialogues; they’ll surprise you!

The artwork is simple and quite unique, with all characters having different skin colour.  Each of the worlds has great detail and you can tell they have been made with dedication and love. The soundtrack is an absolute beauty! Some of the songs are in English and others in French, with quite interesting melodies and lyrics. In terms of controls, you can only use the mouse to point and click where Gary and Winkali need to go.